The Kansas City Royals, buoyed by home runs from Ryan O’Hearn and Carlos Santana, defeated the AL Central rival Detroit Tigers on Friday night 5-3. The loss ends Detroit’s seven-game winning streak, the franchise’s longest in five years, while boosting the Royals winning streak to three.
Left-hander Kris Bubic improved to 3-4 with six innings of one run, six hit baseball, escaping a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning, ending his night on a double-play grounder struck by Jeimer Candelario.
Here is Royals manager Mike Matheny:
O’Hearn hit his eighth home run of the season in the fourth, giving Kansas City a 4-1 lead. Steve Physioc had the call on Bally Sports Kansas City:
Greg Holland earned his seventh save for the Royals, who host Detroit in Game 2 of the series on Saturday night at 6:10, with pregame at 5:30 on KTTN AM 1600, KTTN FM 98.3, and KTTN FM 92.3.
Kansas City, on Friday morning, recalled hard-throwing relief pitcher Domingo Tapia from AAA Omaha. Tapia, acquired from the Seattle Mariners by trade in May, had a 4.50 ERA in 18 appearances for the Storm Chasers. Ryan McBroom, recalled to give the Royals bench more depth for this week’s two game series at Milwaukee, was sent back to Omaha.
Speaking of the Storm Chasers, Royals top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. has been lighting up the scoreboard in his four games at the AAA level, hitting .476 with multi-hits in all of his performances this week. On Friday night, Witt has 3-for-5 and scored twice in a 5-3 win over St. Paul. On Thursday night, Witt was 2-for-5 with an RBI double and the stolen base.
On Sunday afternoon at 1:10, Daniel Lynch will get another shot at a start for the Royals, taking on Detroit. In three starts in early May, Lynch began his big-league career with eight innings of work, allowing 14 runs.
Here is the MLB Scoreboard from Friday, July 23, 2021:
Baltimore 6, Washington 1
New York Mets 3, Toronto 0
Milwaukee 7, Chicago White Sox 1
Boston 6, New York Yankees 2
Tampa Bay 10, Cleveland 5
Minnesota 5, Los Angeles Angels 4
Houston 7, Texas 3
Seattle 4, Oakland 3
Cincinnati 6, St. Louis 5
Chicago Cubs 8, Arizona 3
Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 1
San Diego 5, Miami 2
Pittsburgh 6, San Francisco 4
Colorado 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 6 (10)